Crime and Prison Songs: “Black Betty”

In the 1930’s, John A. Lomax and his son, Alan Lomax, traveled around the United States collecting and recording ballads and songs sung by cowboys, lumberjacks, slaves, creoles, and railway men. They also recorded work songs sung by convicts in Southern prison farms.

The following song, “Black Betty,” appears in their 1934 compilation, American Ballads and Folk Songs, and it was sung to the Lomaxes by a convict doing time at the Darrington State Farm in Texas. “Black Betty” refers to “the whip that was and is used in some Southern prisons.”

Just Published: Early American Criminals

About the author

Anthony Vaver has broad expertise in the social and cultural history of crime and punishment and is the author of the Amazon.com bestselling books, Bound with an Iron Chain and Early American Criminals. He holds a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and an M.L.S. from Rutgers University. He has never spent a night in jail, but he was once falsely accused of shoplifting.
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